People often ask me the source of the name, “Creating Extraordinary Futures.”
Here’s some history and background behind the name and why, to paraphrase The Princess Bride, “Those words do not mean what you think they mean.”
Creating
I’ve worked with a lot of spiritual teachers and coaches over the years who each point to one indisputable constant in our human experience—that each of us creates our own unique, internal representation of the world each and every moment, and that the only thing we can directly experience is that internal representation.
We often behave as if life is “out there,” that it is happening to us and is beyond our control. And while there appears to be an objective world “out there,” it is also impossible to find that world without a subjective observer of it.
Each of us is that subjective observer, bringing to it our interpretations, our conscious and unconscious stories of the way that world is and the way that we and others are.
But the world and self each of us experiences are not solid. Each changes as quickly as our thoughts change. We literally create and recreate our experience every moment we are alive.
This is not to suggest that we have conscious control over how we create that world, or that we can simply change it by changing our thinking. (Anyone who has tried affirmations can attest to how difficult this is.) But noticing what we are creating through thought, and just as importantly, noticing which of our thoughts we believe and which we dismiss, is critical to making changes.
Extraordinary
Extraordinary is one of my favorite words. Conventional definitions include words like “exceptional” and “remarkable.” When I say I help people create extraordinary futures it can even feel a little bit intimidating. Like somehow we don’t deserve something extraordinary.
And yet the word can also be read as “extra ordinary.”
The path of the work that I do with people often leads through extra ordinary. Through building the capacity to be more and more in this moment, in the absence of story, in the presence of unlimited potential and capacity for change.
To me, an extraordinary future is any future that is unlimited by the stories that have brought you to this point. While it may feel impossible, I can assure you it’s not.
Futures
Each of us is capable of living into any number of futures, including the one that we will get when we keep doing the same things that we’ve been doing up till now.
Starting from an idea of what kind of future we want to create, from the idea that our future could be substantially different than our past, is incredibly powerful. That’s the source of the “What if?” that all my clients ask themselves as we work together.
It was this kind of thinking that JFK was engaging in when he declared that we would put a man on the moon.
At the same time, some people think that the future they want has to be fully formed, fully guaranteed, before they are willing to step into it.
That’s simply a delay tactic. But committing to a result without knowing how you will create it is incredibly powerful indeed.
Putting it all together
The Creating Extraordinary Futures Process is about helping individuals and teams see and let go of the stories and limitations they believe about themselves and their organizations. It is about recognizing our malleable experiences of a world that is fundamentally unknowable. It is about recognizing that life, both in the world of work and outside of it, is best experienced as play.
Paradoxically, we get more done when we take things less seriously. And under the right conditions, we can see this and step into it in an instant of insight.
I help individuals and teams cultivate those conditions.